Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/418083
64 DECEMBER 2014 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com U se of platforms during apple harvest has opened up the opportunity for night harvesting. Platforms can be equipped with LED lights that allow workers to see the fruit more easily than in sunlight, says Washington State University Extension Specialist Karen Lewis. And that helps them pick faster. Selective color picking is also easier under LED lighting. Adding a second or third shift allows companies to harvest from more acreage in a given time, and some pickers prefer to work in the cool evening hours than in the heat of the day, even though they have more bugs, such as mosquitoes and gnats, to deal with. However, adding night shifts means employing more forklift drivers, checkers, and supervisors, as well as pickers, Lewis noted. "It does complicate things, and it does increase your costs for manage- ment. It's a shift in the way we're doing business." To see the platform in use go to: www. goodfruit.com/media. Night shift A shift from ladders to illuminated platforms allows pickers to work day or night. by Geraldine Warner Ulises Navarro leans out to grasp D6ZHH7DQJRDSSOHDERXW¼YH feet off the ground near Quincy, Washington, this year. PHOTOS BY TJ MULLINAX